Akila Ganlath

860822617
ENGR 108
Question 3
Ancient homo sapiens depended on the periodicity of nature; reliance on herd
migrations and seasonal availability of wild edible plants dictated the day-to-day survival of
the species. This millennial behavior ended in what is known as the Neolithic Revolution, an
epoch which ended with the emergence of the first civilizations in western Asia, and was
appropriately defined by a myriad of iconoclastic scientific and technological innovations
Shortly before this period humanity, upon its reliance upon a slowly improving
technology, was migrating all over the world. Along the periodic journey tracking the animal
herds that migrated with the seasons, human artifacts such as technology, spoken language,
art, and other cultural markers became more sophisticated. However, man was essentially
still a hunter-gatherer, albeit the most sophisticated one to have ever walked the earth; the
macrocosm of survival depended primarily upon these seasonal migrations of animal herds.
On a more fundamental level, the herds themselves for following the seasonal emergence of
edible plants, an idea which was not evident to homo sapiens. As the population of man
began to grow and diverge in every direction, it created an internal pressure on the maximum
sustainable population; the traveling tribes of man began to clash over hunting and foraging
grounds, as evidenced by preserved specimens in ice and marsh. Whether out of desperation
or through insight by way of natural phenomena (periodic flooding and rains which were
followed by growth of edible plants), man began to tend to plants, relying upon the
knowledge that they would provide a yield periodically. This process grew in sophistication
through trial and error, as the manner of choosing seeds and when to plant them matured. It is
from the latter that one of the most innovative and lasting innovations of the Neolithic
Revolution emerges: timekeeping. The need to measure and quantify the periodicity of
seasons (science) which were detrimental or beneficial to crops was of practical use to the
farmer, and to the larger society. After numerous observation and trial, rudimentary sundials,
and the skills of their use allowed those early farmers to qualitatively determine when to sow
and reap.
This process was expedited by the development of more sophisticated tools such as
the plow and seed drill. However, as many of these early farmers relied upon periodic
flooding to irrigate their crops, it was likely that most of these early communities were
alongside rivers or deltas, such as the Tigris or Nile. As technological and scientific progress
made the yield per grain higher, the population cap per unit area of land increased
proportionally. More farmers thusly competed for the same access to flood plains. Again,
competitive pressures and likely insight from nature prompted another monumental
innovation: irrigation; instead of being able to rely on the periodic flooding of the
riverbanks, some of these outlying farmers began to bring water to their crops through
ditches and dikes. The construction of these works would likely have required the
cooperation of many different families and would have been the basis for another lasting
innovation which will be touched upon later.
The artificial and controlled irrigation of crops would have resulted in better and
higher yields for the farmers outside of the flood plains, and the success of techniques would
have spread through these farming communities. As the yield increased, again population
increased. The need for larger and more penetrating irrigation works would have put more
pressure on farmers to maintain surplus which was maintained by more manipulation of the
environment through construction of canals and reservoirs.The ever increasing complexity of
these works was matched by a growing complexity of the administrations that managed and
directed them. The surplus allowed for the emergence of specialization of labor. Rather than
small communities consisting of neighbor farmers, these large scale works were now
facilitated by skilled laborers and their managers. Furthermore, the surplus maintained by the
farmers was distributed to the canal workers, This process of distribution and stockpiling of
surplus was the basis for the emergence of mathematics. The management itself evolved into
self sufficient bureacracies which exchanged their skills of planning and systems thinking
with sustinence and tribute from farmers and the other specialized members of the
communities. These governing bodies took the form of the first religious organizations or
chiefdoms, and the communities themselves transcended towns and became the first
civilizations. The establishment of these first cities and their associated lands allowed for new
pursuits to emerge such as astronomy. These new fields corresponded with the development
of ensuing technologies such as the sextant, barges for transporting grain and livestock across
the domain. Mathematics and spoken language were augmented with the emergence of
symbolic (written) language which enabled science and the spread of technology to progress
even faster.
The first technological and scientific innovations that occured during the period
known as the Neolithic Revolution can be directly attributed to the rise of horticulture and
agriculture which occurred during this time. These in turn set the stage for further
development in both artifacts of humanity well into the present.